Thursday, December 18, 2014

Too much is lying idle

This year I decided to take a lot of books with me when I visit my parents for Christmas. In the course of the zero-thing-challenge I want to read or reread them before finally giving them away. It is interesting that we tend to hesitate when it comes to actually making use of given resources. We'd rather work on extending them (looking for new products to buy) or minimizing risks instead. These can be all sorts of risks ranging from financial insecurities ("I need to work so much to pay my bills, I don't have time to read") to fear of social isolation ("I prefer meeting my friends to reading").Working and meeting friends is great, but then we need to ask ourselves why we bought the books in the first place. The root of this problem is that most purchasing happens without asking the right questions beforehand.

Now that Christmas is near, I'd like to encourage you to take a break and carefully consider the things you've bought this year but not used or fully used yet. You can learn two lessons from them:

1. Don't buy what you won't use
2. Use what you've bought already

Minimalists are the ones that truly respect the value of material things.
Materialists are like farmers that buy more land than the can possibly till.

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About "the minimalist living"

This blog highlights minimalist living and related philosophical, psychological and spiritual issues as well as thoughts on sustainability and environmental prospects. Living a minimalist lifestyle can initiate numerous paradigm shifts and result in an increase of health, happiness and wealth. With consciousness and mindfulness as its foundations, minimalist living can help to release stress, improve sleep quality and solve time problems.